Page 17

SIXTEEN

Gina pulled up around the back of Cleevesford High. She’d called Jacob and he was on his way too. Bernard had already arrived. Gina watched as two uniformed officers cordoned off the road and path at both sides of the entrance. The large metal gates were open and she could see a couple of cars parked within the school grounds.

‘Morning, guv.’ PC Shaf Ahmed called out as he held the log. She went over and signed.

‘Morning, Shaf. Where is the victim at the moment?’ Gina glanced around. She could see an ambulance, but it was open and devoid of a patient.

‘In the school with PC Smith and forensics.’

‘I’ll head up there now. Can you tell DS Driscoll where I am when he arrives, please?’

He nodded. ‘Will do. Bernard said to cross the road and walk on the grass. Basically, walk around the cordon. He doesn’t want anyone to step on the road until the rest of his team have been over it, and they’re on their way.’

‘Of course. Thanks.’ She crossed the road and began walking on the grass verge all the way to the playground. The door to the sports hall was open and people milled around inside. Paper cups full of coffee and tea were being poured by a man with long blond hair. Gina stepped inside and everyone turned to look at her.

PC Smith walked over. ‘Alright, guv. The victim, Keeley Moore, is in the PE teacher’s office.’

She nodded for him to follow her over towards where a pile of gym mats lay. ‘What do you know?’

‘She’s shaken. A paramedic is in there at the moment and Bernard is, too. Her clothes have been bagged, swabs have been taken and she’s been given some spare clothes from the PE stash. No worrying injuries, just a few cuts and bruises.’

She ran her fingers through her hair, knowing that they wouldn’t have the results for a while. ‘Who are all the other people here?’

‘The man serving the drinks is Xavier Whitmore, he’s the caretaker. The woman in the blue vest top is Lucie Wilde.’ He glanced at his notebook. ‘I was just starting to talk to the others as you came in. More details to come later. The two huddled at the side of the hall are a year head and the PE teacher; both arrived after the incident. The other cleaners were on site when the incident happened, as our victim starts half an hour after them – at six – each morning. The caretaker lives in a building on the other side of the school and he lives alone.’

‘Thank you. Can you check to see how organising the door to doors is going? I’ve only ever really come in through the front entrance of this school, so driving around the back is new to me. I noticed a row of large houses on the road to the right when you leave the gate. Their gardens back onto the school field. We need to see if any of them saw or heard anything.’

‘I’ll check on that.’

She saw Bernard leave the office and walk towards the hall with a box of samples. ‘I’ll just go and speak to Bernard. Let me know if any of the officers on foot find anything.’ She hurried over to the crime scene manager.

‘DI Harte.’

‘Bernard. Anything you can tell me?’

He shook his head. ‘Nothing yet. I have to get all the samples to the lab. The rest of the team have just arrived. They’re going to start checking the area where the van stopped and where the perpetrator chased the victim.’

‘Great, I won’t stop you as I know you’ll have a lot of work to do. Are the paramedics still with the victim?’

He nodded. ‘They’re just finishing up.’

A man ran through the door. ‘Where’s my wife? Keeley ?!’ he yelled. Jacob followed him in and pulled him to one side.

The paramedics left the office and a dark-haired woman with cuts to her face came out of the room. ‘ Morgan !’

The man left Jacob and ran over and flung his arms around her. ‘I had to come. Don’t worry about the kids. Norma next door is looking after them.’

‘I’m okay.’

He pulled away from his wife. ‘You are not okay. Some crazy just tried to kidnap you. That is not okay.’

Gina watched as Keeley’s husband wiped the tears off her cut face. She knew she had to interrupt. ‘I’m DI Harte. Would you mind if we talked in the office, Mrs Moore? Mr Moore, can you just wait out here? Have a coffee with the others while we talk.’

‘Of course. Just call me if you need me, Keeley. I’m not going anywhere.’

‘I know this is hard and you’d probably prefer to be with your family after what you’ve been through, but I’d like you to tell me everything while it’s still fresh in your mind,’ Gina said. Jacob pressed his lips together in a sympathetic smile.

‘I don’t know about fresh. It all happened so fast.’ She took in a sharp breath. ‘I’ve never been so scared in my life.’ Keeley rubbed her glassy eyes as Gina led her back towards the PE teacher’s office where they all took a seat.

Gina pushed the netball match forms into a neat pile so that Jacob could use the desk to make notes. Her foot connected with a pair of muddy football boots under the table as she pulled her chair in.

Keeley zipped the hoodie up over the Cleevesford High School T-shirt. ‘It was horrible. Nothing like this has ever happened to me. I just never saw it coming, and…’ She began to tear up.

Gina spotted a box of tissues and passed them over the table. Keeley took one and wiped her eyes. ‘I know having to think about it all again is hard, but it would really help us if you can tell us, in your own words, what happened.’

After sniffing, Keeley nodded. ‘I walk the same route every day, Monday to Friday, to start work at six. Nothing about my journey felt odd or different, but when I arrived at the back gate, I saw the white van parked on the road outside. No wait, it pulled up as I was approaching. I kept thinking, there wouldn’t be any deliveries this early.’

‘Do you know the make of the van?’

She shook her head. ‘It was large and had a sliding side panel. That’s all I know. I didn’t really take any notice of the registration number. I was still tired.’

‘What happened next?’

Keeley began playing with the zip as she scrunched her brows. ‘I looked through the driver’s window as I passed, but there was no one there, which was strange as they’d just pulled up. I thought, maybe they shimmied across to the passenger side and left out of that door. I wasn’t listening for an opening door, so that’s what must have happened. Then, I heard a voice crying out in pain from the other side. I’m not sure if I heard the side door being slid open then.’ She paused.

‘And then what did you do?’

‘I remember freezing. Despite having children, and with all the scrapes they get into, I have a phobia of blood and injuries, like broken bones.’ She scrunched her nose up slightly. ‘In my mind, I thought maybe the man had hurt himself and I imagined a scene of carnage. All I wanted to do was run away. Then I think he said something else. I don’t even remember whether it was a pained murmur or a cry for help, so I knew I had to help him. When I walked around the van…’ She bit her bottom lip for a second.

‘What did you see?’

‘Legs hanging out of the side; legs in jeans. When I reached them, I saw that they weren’t real, just stuffed clothes. It was confusing, but not alarming. I was expecting to see a horrible injury or something, so I relaxed and called out for Xavier, the caretaker.’

‘Why did you call out for him?’ Gina thought that seemed like an odd thing to do.

‘He plays pranks on me and some of the others. It’s normally quite innocent and just for laughs. One of his recent ones was to squirt red strawberry sauce all over the showers before I cleaned them. I ran out so fast and screamed my head off. The others were laughing. They don’t know about my phobias, and similar jokes have been played before on everyone at some point. It’s just a bit of fun to pass the time away, and mostly started by the younger cleaners.’

From the look on Keeley’s face, Gina could tell that the incident hadn’t been born out of a practical joke. ‘So, you see these stuffed clothes and what next?’

‘I had my phone in my hand and I said something like, “I’m going to call the police”. Then, out of nowhere, the attacker came up behind me and knocked my phone flying. It’s now smashed to pieces and he started trying to force me into the van. He had my wrists behind my back. I managed to wriggle free while my head was pushed into the stuffed shirt. I thought I was going to die.’ She let out a slight hiccup of a cry. ‘I managed to get hold of a travel mug I found under the clothes and I hit him with it. I don’t know where I hit him. Somehow, I escaped his grip and ran.’

‘Where did you run to?’

‘Past the gate, onto the pavement. I kept screaming, but no one heard me and I knew he was catching up. He managed to grab my jacket and he dragged me back to the van where he tried to force me into it. I thought he was going to kill me. All I could think of was my boys and Morgan. I wondered if I’d ever see them again, so I kicked out with all the strength I had. He yelped and I saw him double over. Maybe I caught his groin. I must have for him to look that hurt. Then I ran all the way to the school and the first person I saw was Lucie. She locked the door behind us. We looked out the window, but the van was gone.’

‘Did you see any of the other staff at that time?’

‘Joan, Ally, Ted and Cara came running as they’d heard me screaming and crying in the sports hall.’

‘Did you see the caretaker, Mr Whitmore?’

‘No, he doesn’t always come by until after shift. He opens up around five thirty and then goes back to his house on site, so I wouldn’t expect to see him.’

‘You say it was a man, can you describe him?’

‘He had a man’s voice, or a deep voice. A masculine build. Not well built as in hugely muscular, but strong arms and angular. He was wearing, I don’t know, maybe combat trousers in a sandy colour, a black long-sleeved T-shirt, black gloves and the ski mask.’

‘Ski masks have a horizontal oval slit where the eyes are. Did you look at his eyes?’

‘It was all so fast. I know he was a white male.’

Gina watched Jacob note all that down. ‘How about eye colour?’

Keeley shrugged. ‘I barely saw his eyes. His eyebrows didn’t look too dark in colour, but I’m not sure if I’ve added that detail after.’

‘How about his height?’

‘He was taller than me. I’m five-seven. I don’t know how much taller he was, and he was wearing black boots.’

‘Was there anything else, maybe a smell, a sound or something you saw that might help?’

Inhaling slowly, Keeley took a moment. She closed her eyes and hugged herself. ‘He had strong body odour, but I guess that isn’t much help. Let me try to think about the van again. When I glanced into the driver’s side, there was something hanging from the rear-view mirror. It was a chess piece.’

‘Do you know which chess piece it was?’

Keeley shook her head. ‘Hang on, it was the horse, a white one.’

Gina thought back to when she had learned to play chess as a child, with her own father. The horse, or the knight, moved in an L-shape and could jump over other pieces to land on a blank square. Maybe the killer was trying to say he could go anywhere, over anyone and not be noticed.

Or maybe it was just a chess piece.

‘Here’s my card. If you think of anything else, please call me straight away. An officer will take you to the station shortly so you can give a formal statement.’

She nodded. ‘Okay. Can I go and see my husband now?’

‘Yes, and thank you. I’m sorry about what happened to you today. You must have been terrified.’

‘I still am. What if he’s coming back for me?’

‘One of the team will talk to you about what happens next. We don’t yet know if this was a targeted attack, so I’d like a family liaison officer to join you when you get home, and we’ll be stationing an officer outside your house for your safety.’

‘Do you think I was chosen by some sicko?’

‘At this stage, we don’t know, but some of the details you have provided make me think that.’

‘Have there been more attacks?’

‘We are investigating another case that might be linked. When I know more I will let you know, but for now your safety is paramount.’

‘What about my children? They’re at home with my neighbour, Norma.’

‘How well do you know Norma?’

‘My boys have known her all their life. She’s our babysitter when Morgan and I have an occasional night out. It wasn’t her. She’s lovely and in her early seventies.’

‘We will get an officer to go over to your house right away to check on your home and to make sure Norma and the boys are okay.’ Gina nodded to Jacob and watched as he sent a message to Shaf in the other room. Shaf had taken the victim’s details and he’d be able to send one of the team out to check.

‘Wait, there is something else, but I don’t know if it means anything?’

‘Any little detail is important.’

‘Last week, on a couple of mornings, I saw a blue car parked up at the end of the road with the posh houses. I don’t know the name of the road. The one that runs alongside the school entrance. There was someone sitting in the driver’s seat. I don’t think that is really anything, but I don’t normally see people just parked up and sitting in a car at that time.’

‘Can you describe the person in the car or the car itself? Make or model?’

‘It was just small and older looking, sorry. And I couldn’t see who was in there, I just saw an outline through the back window. Do you think he was watching me and then he came back with a van?’

‘Which days were those?’

‘Err, Thursday and Friday.’

‘What time?’

‘Just before six in the morning. The car was already there when I stepped onto the road.’

John Doe was found in a small blue car. Gina wondered if it was John Doe who had been watching Keeley. Maybe it was the second perp or just another blue car driver. ‘We don’t know, but it’s looking likely.’

Keeley’s hands began to tremble. ‘I need to see my husband and check on my children.’ She stood, slid her chair under the other side of the desk and left.

‘What are your thoughts?’ Gina asked Jacob.

He closed his notebook. ‘I think we definitely need to interview the caretaker, Xavier Whitmore.’

‘Agreed. He wasn’t at the scene. Although wouldn’t Keeley have recognised his vehicle if it was him?’

‘I guess we need to see if he hired a van and left it parked up close by. I’ll add it to the list of things to look out for. Another mention of chess and her seeing someone in a blue car, guv. That’s all more than a coincidence.’

Gina nodded. ‘There are clear links to the two cases. Who is working with John Doe and why did this man try to kidnap Keeley Moore? Have we checked the CCTV?’

‘Yes. The CCTV facing the gate doesn’t reach far enough to capture what happened to Keeley Moore. It caught her running up the path. The CCTV at the other side of the school didn’t capture anything unusual.’

‘Guv.’ Shaf tapped on the open door and entered.

‘What’s happening out there?’

‘There’s a general sense of worry and panic. One of the officers conducting the door to doors has found a potential witness. A woman had a confrontation last week with a man driving a blue Ford Fiesta and it left her unsettled.’